This Is What Prison Is Like In Sweden

Is the purpose of prison to punish criminals, or to rehabilitate them into productive members of society? Sweden takes a more enlightened approach to incarceration.

1. In Sweden, inmates are given spacious homes in beautiful 18th-century apartment buildings, often with breathtaking vistas of the Baltic Sea.

2. Prisoners are able to go to class at the Royal Institute of Technology, a job-training program that teaches convicts how to find work after their release.

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3. Instead of building prisons with grim concrete walls and iron bars, Sweden uses soothing architectural designs to keep inmates calm and in good spirits.

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4. Set aside your expectation of bland prison food. Swedish prisoners get to enjoy fika, a delicious snack consisting of coffee accompanied by pastries like a kanelbulle cinnamon roll.

5. There are plenty of recreational activities to prevent boredom and depression. You can often find inmates listening to music at the prison’s ABBA museum.

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6. State-of-the-art athletic facilities allow convicts to have fun while staying healthy. One of the most popular activities is to play ice hockey at the Ericsson Globe arena.

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7. Some might call all this treatment too lenient, but you can’t argue with the results. Many prisoners are already working hard to repay their debt to society by giving Nobel Prizes to scientists.

8. The lesson Sweden teaches us is that showing prisoners compassion may actually be more effective than vengeance. Hopefully, other countries will follow their lead, and also give their inmates tours of the restored shipwreck Vasa. It’s time to stop building dungeons and start helping prisoners turn their lives around.